Why is our tax money being used exclusively to train laid off autoworkers? Why not train everyone who has lost their jobs? What a crock this is limiting who can attend these training sessions.

Gee, when I got laid off, I had to go to the bureaucratic headquarters of unemployment and jump through hoops, and got no job training. I will say the workers there were great. This transition center is nothing more than politicians telling workers “we feel your pain but we still want your vote!”

It makes sense to locate a job retraining center in an area like Fenton where there is particularly high unemployment, but if the retraining services are limited only to ex-Chrysler workers, that is discriminatory against other unemployed people and should be challenged in court.

Among their other training, they should be given the basics of economics, particularly these facts:

1. People’s pay is determined by the market demand for their services, together with the number of other people offer to supply the same services. Fluctuations in both demand and supply are inherent in a dynamic economic system (one where economic conditions generally improve over time) and as the result, people must accept occasional drops in pay if they expect to remain employed.

2. Despite occasional setbacks in pay, people who improve their skills with experience (and their reputation with a good work record) generally earn more as they grow older. For most workers who understand this principle, the increase in their pay with age greatly increases their individual purchasing power, regardless of statistics to the effect that “workers” as a group may not be gaining purchasing power.

3. In contrast, the notion that government and unions can guarantee every worker the “right” to perform the same job throughout their life, at an ever-increasing rate of pay and benefits, is simply not possible. The reasons for that require a slightly higher level course in economics, but the empirical evidence is provided by the failure of that system to deliver a decent standard of living in the former Communist bloc countries (and North Korea and Cuba today).

For the most part these training programs are a waste of taxpayer money. Most of the people who enroll in these programs will choose to be an electrician, HVAC technician, welder or some other blue collar worker. The only problem is there are enough skilled people out of work to fill whatever limited jobs are available. There is no need to train more people. All this will do is increase the supply of skilled workers looking for work but not the demand. This will in turn lower wages.

Instead of training people for jobs that don’t exist, the government should focus its attention to getting and keeping good paying jobs in the USA.

Where will the new center be and when will it be expected to open?

Information as to the location of this new center is confidential information and is usually not given in a PD story. You will have to wait for the re write for the details usually put in information based stories.

the fenton facility is not open just for chrysler workers–anyone laid off can use this facility; additionally, state funding for extra training is not just for chrysler workers–see WIA funds; i recently attended state funded training with not one chrysler employee in any of the three classes; they ironically are IT based persons from various local businesses; face it folks……..it’s not the autoworkers it’s the trickle down affect of all the autoworkers not working because your foreign made vehicle profits are not here in the US to sustain & support growth; so maybe “Ireland4ever” should get their facts or move to Ireland–hence part of the problem! support US based companies who employ US citizens & keep their US made profits in the US—what a novel idea? you will reap the benefits long term